Rick Barnes smile stretched ear-to-ear. He extended his hands palms up, warmly embracing freshman Nate Ament as he exited late in Tennessee basketball’s 84-66 win over Ole Miss Tuesday night in Knoxville.
It was the latest in a string of strong performances for the five-star freshman. Ament totaled a game-high 28 points along with six rebounds and four assists helping propel the Vols past the Rebels despite a lethargic first half.
“I love the kid to death, because everything that you’d want in a player, in your program to represent, and I know how hard he’s worked,” Barnes said of the interaction.
“It’s a very rare look for him to give anybody to be honest. But you could just see he was proud of me,” Ament said.
Ament’s performance illustrated much of his season. He scored just two points while twice turning it over in an ugly first half. The 6-foot-10 wing then exploded for 26 points on eight-for-10 shooting from the field in a dominant second half.
“I see it every day in practice. I mean, Nate, he’s special now, just in so many different ways,” Barnes said. “He was terrific.”
It was a shaky first two months of the season for Ament. He failed to eclipse 15 points in six of Tennessee’s first eight games against power five opponents. The freshman struggled to get his shot to fall and committed some careless turnovers in tight games.
Barnes has constantly stated that Ament has been good all season, and there were strong moments for Ament early in the season. But Barnes had called Ament the “best player” in a recruiting class that’s proving to be the sport’s best freshman class in over two decades. With that, came criticism.
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Tennessee’s veteran head coach believes Ament was letting everything get to him a bit, and that he was putting too much pressure on himself.
“I think the biggest thing is he settled in really prior to going to Florida, where you could tell he was pressing and maybe a little bit disappointed,” Barnes said. “And I told him prior to that game, ‘You’ve got nothing to be disappointed about. You’re trending in the right direction. Just play one play at a time and get on to the next one.’ And since that game, Florida, he is just a totally different person mentally, the way he’s approached the game and sees it.”
The different mentality is leading to vastly improved results on the court. Since the Florida game, Ament is averaging 22.1 points and five rebounds per game. His emergence is giving Tennessee one of the SEC’s best one-two punches and taking some pressure off Ja’Kobi Gillespie.
“He’s an all-conference player in our league,” Ole Miss head coach Chris Beard said. “I’m not talking about the all-freshman team. He’s one of the best players in our league.”
How Ament is succeeding also says a great deal about his mental growth. He started slow in games against Kentucky, Georgia and Ole Miss. But he found a great balance within those struggles. Ament hasn’t pressed but has also remained aggressive and hunted his shot with a belief that the next one is going to fall.
“Growing up basketball wise but also just a sense of maturity,” Ament said. “Kind of like that next play, shot mentality. But it also translates to life in a real way. Things may happen but you can’t focus on what just happened. You have to move on and move forward. That’s kind of been my mindset. I had a rough first half so I just have to focus on what I can do to help this team win. It’s kind of been helping me grow, just mature as a young man.”
Ament’s maturation is evident and bodes well for both the rest of the season and his professional career. He’ll face obstacles in both but appears equipped to handle them.
